EP0909082A1 - Gebrauch von Statistiken über das Anfordern von Web-Seiten um den Verkehr von Fernsprechanrufzentralen vorherzusehen - Google Patents

Gebrauch von Statistiken über das Anfordern von Web-Seiten um den Verkehr von Fernsprechanrufzentralen vorherzusehen Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0909082A1
EP0909082A1 EP98306771A EP98306771A EP0909082A1 EP 0909082 A1 EP0909082 A1 EP 0909082A1 EP 98306771 A EP98306771 A EP 98306771A EP 98306771 A EP98306771 A EP 98306771A EP 0909082 A1 EP0909082 A1 EP 0909082A1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
call center
server
calls
notifications
call
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP98306771A
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English (en)
French (fr)
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EP0909082B1 (de
Inventor
David L. Bauer
Tore L. Christensen
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Nokia of America Corp
Original Assignee
Lucent Technologies Inc
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Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Lucent Technologies Inc filed Critical Lucent Technologies Inc
Publication of EP0909082A1 publication Critical patent/EP0909082A1/de
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0909082B1 publication Critical patent/EP0909082B1/de
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
    • H04L12/28—Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M7/00—Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres
    • H04M7/0024—Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services
    • H04M7/003—Click to dial services
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
    • H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
    • H04M3/51—Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention, e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
    • H04M3/5183—Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
    • H04M3/5191—Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements interacting with the Internet
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
    • H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
    • H04M3/51—Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention, e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
    • H04M3/523—Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention, e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing with call distribution or queueing
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
    • H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
    • H04M3/51—Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention, e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
    • H04M3/5175—Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Definitions

  • This invention relates to communications networks and to call centers.
  • Call centers that handle inbound calls have traditionally been managed in a reactive mode: call center supervisors staffed and released agents and moved agents between splits in response to peaks and valleys in call volumes as reflected in the lengths of queues of incoming calls waiting to be handled. This is undesirable, because the inherent delay in responding to changing call volumes and types causes the responses to lag behind the changing conditions. Therefore, proactive call-center management information systems have been developed which try to anticipate call volumes and types, and changes therein, and thereby try to eliminate the delay between changing conditions and responses thereto.
  • An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 5,185,780.
  • Such proactive systems typically use historical data from previous days or other time periods to predict agent staffing and agent skill needs. However, it is difficult to anticipate short-term changes in call volumes and types accurately from such data e.g., intra-hour or even shorter fluctuations in calling volumes and types.
  • call centers have come into existence that are able to interact with users of the Internet. They usually work as follows.
  • An Internet user uses a browser on his or her Internet terminal to contact a World-Wide Web page of a call-center customer on a Web server, in a conventional manner.
  • the page may have a virtual button or some other software-based indicator by means of which the user may indicate a desire to speak with a representative of the customer. If the user makes use of the indicator, the user is prompted to enter his or her telephone number. This number is conveyed to the server, which in turn sends it to the customer's call center.
  • the call center uses the supplied telephone number to place a standard outbound call to the user's telephone.
  • An illustrative example of such a call center is disclosed in "Rockwell Teams with Dialogic to Build Groupware Servers for Small Centers", Computer Telephony, Vol. 4, Issue 4 (April 1996), p.112.
  • numbers of hits on the World-Wide Web page or pages (that is, the number of accesses to the Web page or pages) of a call center client serve as an indicator, or predictor, of the volume or type of calls that the call center will soon have to handle, and therefore these numbers can be used to anticipate call volumes and types and to react proactively to changing conditions at the call center before they occur.
  • a communications system that comprises a server for a client-server data network (e.g., the Word-Wide Web) that includes the server and a plurality of clients of the server and wherein the server provides the clients with items of information (e.g., Web pages) requested by the clients, and that further comprises a call center for handling calls relating to the items of information received from the clients via a telephone network
  • the server is communicatively connected with the call center and the server responds to receipt of requests from clients for items of information by sending notifications of the requests to the call center
  • the call center e.g., an information management system thereof
  • responds to receipt of the notifications by storing the received notifications for use in predicting a volume of calls (and/or callback requests) that will soon need to be handled by the call center and staffing the call center in anticipation of the predicted volume of calls.
  • this information can be used either manually or as input into an expert system to suggest to the call-center supervisor what staffing or assignment changes should be
  • each notification preferably identifies the requested item of information, and the call center stores the identification generally for use in predicting types of calls to be handled by the call center and staffing agent splits of the call center in anticipation of the predicted types, and specifically for use in predicting agent skills needed to handle the predicted call volume and staffing the call center with agents having the predicted skills in anticipation of the predicted call volume.
  • a supervisor or an expert system working on his or her behalf
  • agents can be moved to handle other calls within the call center. Since the data network clients must always have at least one page hit before engaging an agent or requesting a callback (and, more typically, they will browse through several pages on the Web site before making a call request), the page hits can be used as a preindication of call activity that will eventually arrive at the call center.
  • Call centers can, over time, record the ratio of page hits to call or callback requests and can apply this ratio to anticipate the calls that are likely to arrive in the future.
  • the clients selectively indicate to the server requests for calls to the call center (e.g., by actuating a "call" virtual button associated with a received Web page).
  • the server responds to receipt of such requests by sending notifications thereof to the call center, and the call center responds to receipt of such notifications by storing the received notifications for use in predicting the volume of calls to be handled by the call center and staffing the call center in anticipation of the predicted call volume.
  • the received item-request notifications are used together with the call-request notifications to determine a historical ratio of item requests-to-calls, and this ratio is then used to predict from recent item-request notifications the volume of calls to be handled by the call center.
  • This ratio can be applied to Web hits in real time and can create threshold alerts to a call center supervisor if the agent pool is insufficient to handle the anticipated call volume.
  • An automated version of this feature uses expert system technology.
  • An expert system collects the appropriate data, applies the historical ratios, and suggests staffing changes within the call center that the supervisor can confirm. Or it can run in a fully-automated mode and simply execute the staffing changes that it predicts.
  • a server for a client-server data network communicates with clients over the data network to receive requests for items of information (e.g., page hits) from the clients and to send the requested items to the requesting clients.
  • this server further responds to the received requests by sending notifications of the requests (page hits) to a call center that handles calls relating to the requested items.
  • the server preferably also receives requests for calls to the call center from the clients and effects the requested calls and further responds to the received call requests by sending notifications of the requests to the call center.
  • a call center for handles calls relating to items of information provided by a server to clients who request the items of information in a client-server data network.
  • the call center further communicates with the server to receive therefrom notifications of requests (e.g., page hits) received by the server from the clients for items of information, and stores the received notifications for use in predicting a volume of calls to be handled by the call center and staffing the call center in anticipation of the predicted call volume.
  • the call center preferably also receives from the server notifications of requests for calls to the call center received by the server from the clients and also stores these received notifications for use in predicting the call volume.
  • communications methods corresponding to the apparatus functions characterized above are effected.
  • FIG. 1 shows a combined data-and-telephony communications network.
  • the data portion of the network comprises at least one client machine, such as a personal computer, referred to as a caller 100, interconnected with at least one World-Wide Web server machine, such as a computer, referred to as a Web server 103, by the Internet data communications network, referred to as the Internet 102.
  • elements 100-103 form a client-server data network.
  • Caller 100 is equipped either with an Internet phone 99 or with a standard telephone or a computer-implemented "soft phone" 98, and also executes a World-Wide Web browser program, referred to as a Web browser 101.
  • the telephony portion of the communications network of FIG. 1 comprises the public telephone system 105, a conventional call center 106 connected to telephone system 105, and telephone 98 connected to telephone system 105.
  • Call center 106 conventionally includes an automatic call distributor (ACD) 107 and call management system (CMS) 1 14 connected to and serving a plurality of call center agent positions 109-110.
  • Each agent position 109-110 includes a telephone 111 connected to ACD 107 for receiving voice calls, and a data terminal 112 connected by a local area network (LAN) 113 for receiving data, such as caller's records from a host computer 108.
  • LAN local area network
  • the telephone and data terminal are combined into a single instrument, such as a display telephone or a personal computer equipped with a "soft phone".
  • ACD 107 and CMS 114 are interconnected by LAN 113 so that CMS 114 can collect information on the operation of call center 106 from ACD 107, in a conventional manner.
  • ACD 107 and Internet 102 are interconnected by an Internet telephony gateway (ITG) 104 which converts Internet voice calls from Internet phone 99 to telephone calls and vice versa.
  • Telephony gateway 104 is illustratively the Lucent Technologies Inc. Intemet Telephony Gateway, or a modified version of the Lucent Technologies Inc. Definity ® Enterprise Communications Server.
  • ACD 107 is illustratively a Lucent Technologies Inc.
  • Definity Enterprise Communications Server ACD, and CMS 114 is illustratively the Lucent Technologies Inc. Centre Vu Call Management System.
  • ITG 104 and call center 106 comprise the Lucent Technologies Inc. Internet call center.
  • Web server 103 includes a Web home page 121 and zero or more additional Web pages 122 for a client of call center 106, which may be accessed by caller 100 via Web browser 101 over Internet 102, in a conventional manner.
  • Home page 121 and zero or more pages 122 each has a conventional hypertext markup language (HTML) capability -such as a "call" virtual button 115-- by means of which a user of Web browser 101 can indicate a request to speak to an agent of call center 106.
  • HTML hypertext markup language
  • CMS 114 is connected by a data link 120 through Internet network 102 to Web server 103, by means of which connection Web server 103 reports Web page "hits" and call requests to CMS 114.
  • Each of the call-center client's Web pages 121, 122 that has a "call" virtual button 115 includes a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script 123 that is invoked each time a caller 100 accesses the page and also each time a caller 100 actuates "call" button 115 of that page. Execution of script 123 causes Web server 103 to report to CMS 114 either that the corresponding page has been accessed or that the corresponding page's button 115 was actuated.
  • CGI Common Gateway Interface
  • Button 115 may function as a "call-back” button whose actuation results in a callback request being sent to ITG 104 or ACD 107. A call is then automatically placed back from ACD 107 to caller 100.
  • button may function as a "make call” button whose actuation results in a call from caller 100 being extended to ACD 107, illustratively in the manner disclosed in a patent application of J.E. Coffman et al., entitled “Extending Internet Calls to a Telephony Call Center", serial no. 08/749298, filed on November 14, 1996, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Therefore, as used herein, the term "calls" includes call-back requests.
  • the reports sent by Web server 103 to CMS 114 are substantially real-time indications of each page 121, 122 hit and "call" button 115 actuation.
  • the interactions between Web server 103, caller 100, and CMS 114 that effect supplying call center 106 and its supervisors with information predictive of anticipated call volume and call types are shown in FIG. 2.
  • Web server 103 detects the request (a page "hit"), at step 202, and sends the requested Web page 121, 122 to caller 100, at step 204.
  • Caller 100 receives the Web page and displays it, at step 206.
  • Web server 103 also executes script 123 associated with the requested page 121, 122. This causes Web server 103 to compose a message identifying the accessed (requested and sent) Web page 121, 122, at step 208, and to send this message to CMS 114 via Internet network 102 and data link 120, at step 210.
  • CMS 114 receives the message, at step 230, and checks whether it indicates actuation of a "call" button 115, at step 222.
  • the message sent at step 210 does not indicate actuation of a button 115, so CMS 114 merely stores the message data, e.g., the Web page identifier and the time when the message was sent, at step 250.
  • Web browser 101 of caller 100 When Web browser 101 of caller 100 detects actuation by a user of "call" button 115 of the Web page that it received at step 206, at step 212, it sends a call-request message indicative of that actuation to Web server 103, at step 214.
  • Web server 103 receives the call-request message, at step 216, and processes it, at step 218, as necessary to effect establishment of a call between caller 100 and call center 106.
  • Web server 103 also executes script 123 associated with the Web page 121, 122 whose button 115 was actuated. This causes Web server 103 to compose a message identifying that Web page 121, 122 and the vector directory number (VDN) that is associated with the actuated button 115, at step 220, and to send this message to CMS 114, at step 222.
  • VDN vector directory number
  • CMS 114 receives the message again at step 230, and checks whether it indicates a button 115 actuation, at step 222.
  • the message sent at step 222 does indicate a button 115 actuation, so CMS 114 determines the estimated wait time (EWT) of the call established as a consequence of step 218, at step 234.
  • EWT is illustratively determined in the manner disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 5,506,898 which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
  • CMS 114 then composes a message indicating the determined EWT, at step 236, and sends it to Web server 103 via data link 120 and Internet network 102, at step 238.
  • Web server 103 receives the message, at step 240, composes a new message indicating the EWT, at step 242, and sends the new message to caller 100, at step 244.
  • Caller 100 receives it, at step 246, and displays the EWT, at step 248.
  • steps 232-248 may be eliminated.
  • CMS 114 stores the message contents of the message which it received at step 230, e.g., the Web page identifier, the VDN, and the time when the message was sent, at step 250.
  • CMS 114 uses this stored data along with other, conventional, call center 106 data to generate reports for the call center supervisors, at step 252, including reports on historical ratios of numbers of hits and numbers of calls resulting from those hits.
  • a supervisor of call center 106 can use reports on current (recent) numbers of hits on the client's pages along with the historical ratios of page hits to calls ("call" button 115 actuations) as a predictor of the volume of calls that call center 106 will soon have to handle, and make corresponding agent staffing changes in anticipation thereof.
  • the supervisor of call center 106 can use reports on current numbers of hits on individual pages 121 and 212, along with the historical ratios of page hits to calls for the individual pages, as a predictor of the types of skills that will be needed to handle the anticipated calls and assign various agents to various call center splits accordingly.
  • call center 106 may include a scheduling and adherence expert-system program, executing either on CMS 114 or on some other unit of call center 106, which automatically computes present and future call center and split agent-staffing and agent-skill needs and agent schedules. In that case, call center 106 supplies the data that it has collected and stored to this program, at step 254, so that the program can compute anticipated staffing changes for call center 106.
  • a scheduling and adherence expert-system program executing either on CMS 114 or on some other unit of call center 106, which automatically computes present and future call center and split agent-staffing and agent-skill needs and agent schedules.
  • call center 106 supplies the data that it has collected and stored to this program, at step 254, so that the program can compute anticipated staffing changes for call center 106.
  • the information reported by the Web server to the call center may include information to general Web-site traffic flows, e.g., patterns of hits, etc.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Marketing (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)
  • Monitoring And Testing Of Exchanges (AREA)
  • Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)
EP98306771A 1997-09-02 1998-08-25 Gebrauch von Statistiken über das Anfordern von Web-Seiten um den Verkehr von Fernsprechanrufzentralen vorherzusehen Expired - Lifetime EP0909082B1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US08/922,468 US6188673B1 (en) 1997-09-02 1997-09-02 Using web page hit statistics to anticipate call center traffic
US922468 1997-09-02

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EP0909082A1 true EP0909082A1 (de) 1999-04-14
EP0909082B1 EP0909082B1 (de) 2000-04-19

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US (1) US6188673B1 (de)
EP (1) EP0909082B1 (de)
JP (1) JPH11164020A (de)
KR (1) KR100610031B1 (de)
CA (1) CA2244465C (de)
DE (1) DE69800118T2 (de)

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US6188673B1 (en) 2001-02-13
KR100610031B1 (ko) 2006-11-10
KR19990029401A (ko) 1999-04-26
JPH11164020A (ja) 1999-06-18
DE69800118D1 (de) 2000-05-25
CA2244465A1 (en) 1999-03-02
CA2244465C (en) 2005-10-11
EP0909082B1 (de) 2000-04-19

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